


Sunburns and Sunsets

by as_with_a_sunbeam



Series: Modern AU [2]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Romantic Fluff, Sunburn, Vacation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-15
Updated: 2018-01-15
Packaged: 2019-03-05 09:37:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13385085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/as_with_a_sunbeam/pseuds/as_with_a_sunbeam
Summary: His mother’s ring had been sitting in his pocket for three weeks while he waited for the perfect moment. A weekend getaway seemed like it might present just such an opportunity. Only, now Eliza’s sunburn may or may not be turning purple.Another fluffy hamliza modern AU





	Sunburns and Sunsets

A sea gull cawed as it soared past him towards the resort parking lot, where someone had abandoned a nearly empty white carton of crinkle fries less than a foot away from the trash bin. Hamilton shook his head at the show of human laziness as he mounted the last few steps of the steep outdoor staircase and emerged on the third floor balcony. He transferred the white plastic bag into his left hand and fished the key card to the room from the deep pocket of his navy shorts. Approaching the cheery yellow door labeled 317, he slid the card into the slot and waited for the little light to turn green before he pressed down on the shiny metal handle.

The room was dim and cool, a stark contrast to the blazing sun and heat outside.

“Eliza?” he called as the door closed behind him with a heavy snap.

A groan emanated from the bathroom on his right. “I think I’m turning purple.”

He smiled as he freed the little bottle of aloe he’d purchased at the gift shop from the bag in his hand, the plastic rustling softly as he tossed it in the recycling container. “You’re not turning purple.”

She yanked the bathroom door open, wearing only her bikini, and gestured to a patch of sunburn on her thigh that had turned a deep, angry shade of red. “Purple,” she insisted.

He hissed sympathetically. “Yeah, okay, some of you might be a little purple.”

“This sucks,” she whined, snatching the aloe from his hands. She popped the blue top and squeezed a generous amount of green gloop into her palm. Her expression was pinched as she gingerly touched her hand to the worst of the burn on her right inner thigh.

He and Eliza had arrived at the resort early this morning, meeting up with Angelica and Peggy who’d been there since Wednesday. Washington couldn’t spare him for more than a weekend, and, honestly, he’d felt a little uncomfortable knowing Eliza had covered the lion’s share of the expenses for the getaway even with it being only two days. But a weekend away from the bitter cold of New York in winter with the girl of his dreams had proven too tempting an offer to refuse, especially when his mother’s ring had been sitting heavily in his pocket for the past three weeks. Maybe this trip was his chance to find that elusive perfect moment he’d been waiting for.

Almost as soon as they’d put their bags down in their room, Eliza’s sisters had appeared at the door. “We rented a boat,” Peggy had declared before any greeting could be exchanged. “Get your bathing suits on.”

Eliza had swiftly changed into her black bikini while he stripped down to his white t-shirt and donned his swim trunks. He’d replaced his khaki shorts and light linen shirt in his suitcase and let his fingers graze the little velvet box stuffed underneath his spare boxers. A flutter of anxiety passed over him until he glanced over to see Eliza tying her turquoise sarong around her waist and shoving her feet into her flip flops. She’d smile when she saw him looking at her. When she strolled over to kiss him, he’d touched her hips reverently, still hardly believing someone so beautiful could want anything to do with him.

Angelica and Peggy had both been waiting just outside, and they spirited them off to the wharf, where Angelica’s boyfriend, John, and Peggy’s newest, oddly normal beau, Steve, were already waiting on the rented white speedboat. Eliza had stretched out beside him in the front of the boat, her hair up in a casual twist and oversized sunglasses covering her eyes. “Do my back for me?” she’d requested with the sexiest little smirk as she handed him the orange tube of sunscreen from her beach bag.

 Everything had been delightful, until they’d finally gone back to shore for drinks and found that Eliza’s skin bore several angry red patches.

“It hurts,” she groaned, now rubbing the aloe onto a red spot on her arm.

“It looks worse than earlier,” he noted. “Maybe we should take you to Urgent Care or something?”

“I’ll be fine. The aloe will help.”

“You’re sure?”

She nodded. “I just want to lie down and whine about it.”

He laughed. “That’s okay.”

She smiled weakly as she finished rubbing a little aloe onto the bridge of her nose. Then she walked past him into the room, through their little kitchen area back towards the bed, where she sprawled out like a starfish across the blue and gold blanket. He paced over to the screen door of their balcony overlooking the ocean. Children’s laughter drifted up from the beach. He spotted a group of boys racing towards the big inflated water slide the resort had set up, looking not the least bit bothered by the hot afternoon sun.

“I could put some music on,” he suggested, glancing back at Eliza.

She grunted.

“Or a movie?”

Her head rolled to look at him. “I want to go get piña coladas and lay on the beach.”

“I don’t think more sun would be a good idea, honey.”

Her nose wrinkled. “I don’t understand how I got so sunburned. I put sunscreen on.”

“I don’t know. You must have missed some spots?”

“You didn’t get a sunburned.”

“Of course I didn’t get sunburned. I’m from the Caribbean. I learned my lesson a long time ago.”

“Well that’s not fair,” she groused.

God, she was adorable, he thought, fighting a smile at her exaggerated pout.

“I’m sorry,” he told her sincerely.

She huffed and looked back at the ceiling. “This sucks.”

He sighed. It did suck. He felt the grand romantic moment slipping through his fingers. It had been a stupid idea, anyway, he told himself. Who proposed after only three months?  

~*~

He was sliding his tie knot into place when he heard Eliza hiss in the bathroom. “Are you sure you still want to go to dinner? We could just order room service.”

“I will not let a stupid sunburn ruin our whole weekend,” she insisted.

“If you’re sure….”

“I’m sure. It only hurts if I touch it, or, you know, move.” He rolled his eyes but gave up arguing. She stepped out of the bathroom wearing a light pink sheath dress with a cream colored shawl draped over her arms. “Does the shawl look dumb?”

“No.”

“My arms are all blotchy,” she complained. “And I smell like aloe.”

“You look beautiful,” he assured her.

A little smile curled at the corners of her lips as she came closer to him. “Yeah?”

He tipped his face down to press a kiss to her lips. “You always look beautiful.”

She smoothed her hands over his sport jacket. “You don’t look so bad yourself.”

“Thanks,” he laughed.

She pulled away and headed towards her suitcase while he grabbed his watch off the bureau. “I thought I packed those white flats?” he heard her muttered to herself.

When he looked up, he saw her leaning over the other side of the bed where he’d thrown his suitcase…his suitcase which still held the little velvet box. A burst of adrenalin shot through him. “No!”

She jumped and turned to look at him, her brow furrowed. “I just thought I might have stuck my shoes in your case,” she explained.

Not a particularly odd thought, given that his case currently held a pair of heels and one of her light sweaters. He forced himself to relax. “Uh, it’s just…your heels are in there, not your flats.”

“Okay,” she said slowly, moving back towards her own suitcase. She unzipped one of the side pockets and added, “Ah! Here they are.”

His palms felt sweaty, and he had the sort of anxious pit in his stomach he used to get before mock trials in law school. He cleared his throat and smiled. “Ready?”

She grabbed her purse off the chair by the bed and nodded. “Ready.”

Before he followed her out, he paused. “Hold on just a sec,” he requested.

She nodded and waited by the door while he went back into the room, leaned over the bed, and pulled the box free from its hiding place. He should really keep it somewhere more secure. And it wouldn’t hurt to have it with him, right?

~*~

Eliza frowned at him over the chocolate cake they were sharing. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” he said, sipping at the last of the red wine in his glass.

“You’ve just been kind of quiet tonight,” she noted. “Is something bothering you?”

He smiled. “What would be bothering me? We’re on vacation.”

She snorted. “Yeah, quite the vacation. Nothing like sitting in a hotel room with your mopey, sunburned girlfriend all afternoon.”

“I just want to be with you. Even if you’re mopey and sunburned.” He was gratified when that earned him a little smile. “Does it still hurt?”

She shrugged and gestured towards the last crumbs of the cake. “Do you want the last piece?”

“I think you’ve earned it,” he invited.

She happily scooped up the last bite.

He glanced over across the bustle of the restaurant through the bay windows that looked out on the beach. “The sun’s starting to set,” he observed.

“Good riddance,” she said, her hand held up to cover her full mouth. She swallowed and added, “I’ve decided I hate the sun.”

He laughed. “You want to go watch it get eaten by the ocean?”

“Yes, please,” she said with a grin.  

They’d already settled the check a few minutes before, so they both rose and headed out the back door onto the beach. The families had all packed up for the day, and only one or two couples still lingered on the sand. Eliza pulled her shoes off as soon as they were on the beach, the flats held loosely in her left hand. Her toes scrunched in the soft sand as she walked, he noted. He reached for her free hand as they walked down towards the water.

“Wow,” she whispered when they came to a stop right by the water line. The waves were lapping on the shore, the peaceful sound enough to drown out any noise from the resort behind them. The horizon had turned a hazy orange, slowly softening into violet blue. “This is beautiful.”

“Nothing quite like sweet revenge?”

She laughed and leaned against him. “Exactly.”

He gazed down at her, watching the loose hair around her face flutter gently in the ocean breeze. Swallowing down his nerves, he told her, “I’m about to do something. And it might be really stupid. So you can just tell me if it’s stupid, okay?”

She looked up at him with those dark, striking eyes of hers and gave him the crooked smile that drove him crazy. “Okay.”  

He nodded and exhaled deliberately, steeling himself for almost certain rejection. Fumbling in his pocket for the little box, he seized it and slowly lowered himself to one knee in the sand. Her eyes widened perceptibly as he showed her the ring.

“I know we’ve only been dating for three months, and that objectively this probably seems insane. But, I guess love is a sort of insanity.* I’m so in love with you, Eliza. I’ve been so in love with you since the moment I laid eyes on you. Everything with us just fits, you know? You are the kindest, sweetest, most beautiful woman I’ve ever met. I never thought I could be this happy. I never want to be without you. So, I guess, what I’m trying to ask is, will you marry me?”

She stared down at him, silent and unreadable.

“Eliza?”

“That wasn’t stupid,” she whispered finally.

“No?”

She shook her head and wiped a hand over her cheek. “No. That was perfect.”

He hesitated still, waiting. “So?”

“Of course I’ll marry you, you goof.” She gave a watery laugh and knelt down in the sand in front of him, hissing softly when her knees hit the ground. He winced and reached out without actually touching her, worried he’d hit another tender spot. She didn’t seem to carry the same concern; she simply hooked her arms around his neck and gave him a long, slow kiss. “I was ready to marry you right after you choked on your canapé when I first agreed to go to dinner with you.”  

He laughed. His chest felt light and funny, a strange mix of relief and…he struggled to identify the other emotion. Joy, he decided at last. Pure joy.

Eliza was looking at the ring.

“It was my mom’s,” he told her. “It’s one of the only things I still have of hers. Do you like it?”

“I love it,” she sniffled. He wiggled it out of the box and slid it onto her finger. As she looked down at the ring, her face soft and beautifully lit in the fading light, he knew he was the luckiest man in the world.

**Author's Note:**

> *Quote from one of Hamilton's letters to Eliza, dated 13 October 1780. Boy, did that man know how to write a love letter :) 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed! Thanks so much for reading! All feedback very much appreciated!


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